266 
CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
Occasionally a human being will be biten, and not by reason 
of any aggression on his own part—merely passing within 
striking distance of a reptile he had not seen. Rattlers, not 
unlike men, ofttimes go about with a chip on their shoulder— 
some enemy had provoked a fight with the serpent and his 
temper had not yet subsided. Most altercations in which men 
engage are not the outgrowth of any act committed at the 
time, but rather because of a mutual dislike of long standing. 
Now, the rattler will brook no interference whatever with 
his honeymoon, clandestine though it might prove to be. Any¬ 
one intruding upon his privacy at such a time is very likely to 
pay with his life—and whether such intrusion was intentional 
or unintentional makes no difference whatever. Now could 
man, with a clear conscience, hurl the cynic’s ban. 
A rattler will fight to the death to protect the life of his 
young. From man’s point of view is there anything wrong 
with that? 
They are such peace loving creatures that they will never 
permit their paths to cross that of man if there is any possible 
way to avoid such meeting. 
When one is encountered he will slip away from the fight, 
provided it can be done on terms compatible with his dignity 
as a rattler. 
Self-preservation being Nature’s first law, of course he will 
fight to protect his own life. What of it? 
He will fight when men invade his hunting grounds, and this 
brings to mind an observation by a profound student of history. 
He made a deep study of all the great wars of the past, glean¬ 
ing all that was available from the secret files of the chancel¬ 
leries of the participating powers, snatching the pious false- 
faces from kings, prime ministers, and diplomats. When his 
finding was shorn of all hypocrisy, false accusations, and then 
condensed into the fewest possible words, his summation of the 
underlying causes of all such wars was that they were “Over 
the world’s best feeding places.” Now, if the rattler is 
under indictment for defending his own feeding grounds, and 
if the finding of this historian be true, then our only alterna¬ 
tive would be to nolle prosequi the indictment. 
